Barrett has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.0 for each
Home is the office for 1% of workers, against 14% across Texas. 66 jobs are based in Barrett; 1,912 of its residents have a job. For jobs and income Barrett is better than 43% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (D).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The short version on getting to work from Barrett
Barrett is a place people come home to
There are 66 jobs based in Barrett, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Barrett has about 1,400 people in it, 56% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
37% of Barrett works in Houston
702 working residents, 37%, have their main job in Houston, 21 miles away. That’s 37 times as many as work in Barrett itself. The commute map ↓
Few Barrett workers work from home
Only 1% of workers work from home, against 14% across Texas. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Where Barrett’s Jobs & income grade comes from
Job access by car holds Barrett’s grade up (ahead of 93% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (37.6%, U.S. 11.9%).
17% of Barrett’s residents are college students, and off-campus students count in the Census poverty figures. Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (19% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 37.6%, against 34.0% for all residents. Unemployment (9.6%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($85,395), since student households pull the household median down ($48,125).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Barrett could be anywhere from C− to A−.
Who works in Barrett, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 1,898 residents head out to work, 14 work right here, and 52 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,400 people are in Barrett on a workday afternoon, 56% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
37% of working residents work in Houston
Where Barrett clocks in
37% of workers
7% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
About 31 minutes to work from Barrett
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Barrett workers work from home, vs 14% across Texas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,279 commuters (the 1% who work from home are left out). Across Texas: 83% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The kinds of work in Barrett
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Barrett, 2013 → 2023: 179 → 66. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Barrett’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute from Barrett, by distance
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Barrett: mostly by car
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,287 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.9% of Barrett households have no vehicle (Texas 5.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Barrett’s commuters take a bus or train.
Barrett places 2,551st of 4,453 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 2,300 to 4,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 6 | Taylor Lake Village TX | 3,774 | $166K | 0.0% | 0.6% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Hollywood Park TX | 3,140 | $138K | 2.6% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 18 | Talty TX | 3,299 | $155K | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,549 | Stallion Springs CA | 2,937 | $87K | 5.0% | 5.8% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,550 | Ozona TX | 2,405 | $82K | 8.9% | 3.3% | 27% | C+ |
| 2,551 | Barrett TX | 3,273 | $48K | 34.0% | 9.6% | 1% | C+ |
| 2,552 | Union ME | 2,444 | $81K | 10.2% | 3.2% | 9% | C+ |
| 2,553 | Borrego Springs CA | 2,700 | $86K | 3.5% | 6.1% | 27% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 4,453 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Barrett, the top three, the last and three more from Texas.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Students. 17% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Barrett: questions
What is the median household income in Barrett?
$48,125 (±$44,698) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,476 across Texas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Barrett?
34.0% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 37.6%. Texas: 13.8%.
How long is the commute from Barrett?
31 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Texas and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Barrett work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Houston (37%, 21 mi), Baytown (7%, 9 mi), Pasadena (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Barrett walkable?
Barrett is more walkable than 10% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Barrett without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Barrett, from the people who make the trip.
More of Barrett
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.